Book of the Month: "My Voice" by Angie Martinez

It’s rare that an autobiography can get someone to feel so connected to the author so quickly within the first pages and yet there it was an unabashed honesty usually not advisable if members of the story were still alive. It would be considered dangerous, exploitative even if they didn’t agree with the version put on the page and yet here it was.

Angie Martinez, an N.Y.C. radio icon, “the voice of NY” was able to, in the most precise and delicate way show readers the evolution of hip hop from street boys peddling CDs to major labels and the wave that took over the world. Not that her language was ever tame, but what was paid considerable attention to was stating as much of the story from all sides. Having dialogue from some of hip-hop’s greatest like Jay-Z, Mary J. Blige, Nas, Tupac, the list goes on shows the rare point of view only a very special person could have.

This isn’t just a book about a radio host and the people she met along the way. “The Voice” is a recount of a young girl growing up in N.Y.C. who found her passion: hip-hop and let that love take her all the way into the businesswoman, confidant, leader and inevitable stable DJ in a world of rap battles and company wars known today. She takes the reader through her journey in great detail with page turning drama and humor on every page. Not only that, the most impactful element of the novel is her genuine, truthful nature. She goes into great detail about the rap wars between the East coast and West coast never backing down from being a person with strong character and integrity.

It’s rare to find a book written by a businesswoman in where she explains all aspects of life, success, and failure alike so that the reader can learn a lesson she had to live through. It seems like this book had to come out to explain who she became through trial by fire, to her friends, her family and her listeners who always rooted for her. Being from New York, the writing style was just that, clear, to the point but knitting a story so well made with not an extra thread. Reading this book felt like Angie was an old friend sitting in your living room dishing about friends, except these were hip hop moguls she hung out with. Just the same she would just refer to them as Mary or Wayne because they were just people like anyone else and that was all the more charming since she treated everyone with equal respect.

Her style, which is unlike any other is what gave her a radio career of more than twenty years, and this is the book you want to read from cover to cover because so much of hip-hop history was in the shadows and now after opening up “My Voice” can you hear it all. Lastly, the greatest takeaway is the inspiration she gives tenacious readers to show up, accept their challenges and do their best at finding their own voice and their own paths to living a

life full of passion.

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